I am my own farrier, and I would take the time to make sure the horse was confident before I ever touched his feet. It's about proper preparation.

In the meantime, you would just let the horse's feet go without treatment??

It is taking months to get AZ comfortable with his feet being touched. When our farrier comes, all I have to do at this point to help calm him, is hold his lip. I don't even have to twitch it anymore, but we did for the first couple of farrier visits. Obviously we're still working on him, but if we waiting for his confidence level to be high enough before getting his feet done, he would be lame from long toes.

I would start the confidence building immediately, as soon as I got the horse. Just like I did with my warmblood when I first got him, although his issue was shots. I started desensitizing immediately because I knew he would needs shots, and after just a few sessions he was responding ten times better, and his shot issue was very extreme.

I would start the confidence building immediately, as soon as I got the horse. Just like I did with my warmblood when I first got him, although his issue was shots. I started desensitizing immediately because I knew he would needs shots, and after just a few sessions he was responding ten times better, and his shot issue was very extreme.

My mustang hates getting shots , I have been working with him to get over it ...He is very extreme, the last few time he has been ok , just moving around , but this last time all heck broke loose..he reared and now I feel like I am back at square one.
The vet said for now on he is going to twitch him before he even sees the shot...I was working so hard for that not to happen so I am going to have to go back to the beginning . If you have any ideas for me to try I will have an open ear..PM me please.

My Paint on the other had falls asleep and cocks a leg when the the vet gives shots, coggins you name it ....Amazing!

If the horse's training is done properly and he has had his confidence nurtured, then twitching will never enter the handler's mind. Twitching happens when there is a hole in the horse's foundation and the person doesn't know what to do to fix it. Twitching is not necessary.

I disagree. I don't believe in twitching for ridiculous things like clipping (train your dang horse, it's not a neccesity) but for extreme medical situations, I think it's a bit whimsical to say "twitching is not neccesary." If it boils down to the health of the horse depending on keeping them still, I'll take twitching any day. You simply can't make this statement for severely abused animals that need immediate care.

Case in point, the Arab mare I got. We only had her a few weeks, and we had obtained her already pregnant. My grandpa awoke one morning and she had given birth to a healthy filly. Unfortunately, she was a scared maiden mare and wouldn't let the foal nurse. By the time we got out to the farm, it had been many hours and the foal was still unable to nurse. In this situation, we twitched. This wasn't a case of having time to get her used to us, or even being able to milk her, since she'd kicked like a demon and go absolutely spastic in her stall. That filly NEEDED that milk. And it worked out fine - after twitching, we were able to get the filly underneath her and nursing. After that, she was fine. And that filly has now grown up into my dearest Zierra, so yeah, twitching CAN be a neccesity at times. I also brought the mare around and helped her overcome most of her fears in a gentle way afterwards.

Obviously this is a bit of a drastic case, but my point is that sometimes extreme measures have to be taken with animals when health overrides the situation.

Our farrier used a lip rope on the daughter's colt the first time he did his feet. The colt danced around too much before we tried the lip rope - and he was used to us messing with his feet. He just didn't want to stand sill and didn't like the noises the rasp made. He stood stock still when the farrier put the lip rope on him. By the time the farrier was finished, the colt was half asleep. After removing the lip rope, the farrier went back and picked up all of the colt's feet and tapped them with a pair of rattley pliers. The colt pricked an ear, but that was about it. Guess he figured his pedicure wasn't so bad after all?

Back before most of you were born, I had a horse that needed his teeth floated. The sedatives they had back then weren't very good, and the vet wanted to try a lip twitch before resorting to sedation. Worked like a charm! We didn't have time to work with that horse before the vet did his teeth. Poor thing was already stick thin and may have lost even more condition if we had waited to "properly train" him...

I hate it. The farrier used it on my qh without listening to me. She was pissed completely. It was first and LAST time I met him.

We tried the twitching on my other horse (vet insisted) and it didn't work in very bad way. Moreover she didn't let him close at all after that (NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING helped). And lots of problems with the other vet to come close. The other vet (and he deals with trouble horses a lot) actually said he would NEVER EVER put any twitch on her as she's just not that type of the horse.

So the down point, may be it works for some people and horses. Didn't work for me. I'd rather go with the different approach and more training.

I don't think anyone would disagree that proper training is the ideal method. Of course we want to get our horses to be able to get shots/farrier work/teeth floating without having to resort to a twitch, but in some cases that is not an option. Sometimes the horse needs attention now and you may need a twitch to get the job done.
That being said, I do not like ear twitches at all. They actually taught it in my Vet Tech program and it kind of bothered me. Lip twitches can be humane. I have yet to see an ear twitch I thought was completely humane.

On the ear twitch - I do my ear twitching by hand. I fold the top the the ear forward and back to itself and apply/release pressure as needed. All of mine are accepting of it and know I will still hold the ear, but not squeeze, if they stay still. I don't put "clothes pin" type devices on the ear. If I need my hands free or I am away from the face, I will use any of the other methods I noted in my earlier post.
To me this method is less invasive than any of the device techniques and, if done properly, is the next step up from pulling on the rope halter. Trick to my method is to try to teach the horse that you will relax pressure AS SOON as they quit pulling. If they don't then the pressure increases - if that doesn't work you go to the devices that are there until you are done.

I had never heard of ear twitching until I got Sis. I was told that she had had her ears twitched or it was suspected. She was incredibly head shy, she would rear, jerk, you name it she did it to get away from anything near her ears. Haltering and bridling was a nightmare and she still isn't 100% on either but I can reach up between her ears now and scratch her or touch her ears without her having a meltdown. The lip twitch I've used and it worked well for when the vet needed to tube another mare I owned. I agree training is the key but there are times when you don't have the time to train one before it needs medical/farrier/teeth work done.

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